The Edge Chronicles: In a New World
by Hubble7
Summary: Oh look, another self-insert story. Well, let’s see what broken abilties the SI has this time...wait, what do you mean I need to get a job? And I don’t actually get to meet Neptune for two months? Get me out of this place! (Inspired by both “HyperDementia Neptunia: Welcome to our Dimension” and “HDN: Ruination” by Shattersoul and Porpol respectively.)
1. Chapter 1: Development

**AN: Welcome to the fic! HDN is a franchise I've danced around for a while. When I first got into it, I fell in love almost immediately. I watched playthroughs of all of the games (except for Hyperdevotion; we don't talk about that one) and watched the anime several times. I even tried to write some fanfictions, but those were...pretty bad. After a bit, though, I got a severe case of burnout and I dropped out of the fandom for quite some time. I don't know what's happened, but I've begun to love this series again, and I wanted to write something for it once more. So I thought: "Hmm...why not start off with what may be the easiest genre to write: self-insert?"**

**This fic can basically be seen as practice for what I'd like to do next, so please leave your honest feedback and criticisms. Lord knows I need it. Last thing: this story was inspired by _HyperDementia Neptunia: Welcome to our Dimension _by Shattersoul. It's a great SI story that I highly recommend. **

**With that out of the way, let's begin!**

Sleep is a beautiful thing. It's especially great when you have a freezing cold pillow that has the same texture as mush, and it's even better when snow is falling on you and covering your entire body. And really, it's just the best when you're wearing shorts and the snow is coming into direct contact with your legs.

Unable to take any more, I open my eyes slowly and sit up. I'm in a large, empty field that's blanketed by snow. There are a few major issues with this. First and foremost is that when I went to sleep, I was in a house, under a roof, in a bed, and in my pajamas. My current situation satisfies none of those parameters (not even that last one; for some reason, I'm in my regular clothes), and is pretty dire. Furthermore, I'm not carrying my phone, so I can't just call my family and get a ride home. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I have no idea where the hell I am.

I fully stand up, unable to tolerate the feeling of the snow on my legs any longer. In the distance, I can just barely make out the outline of a city. Deeming that my highest probability of survival, I start to walk there as quickly as I can. As the snow crunches underneath me, I make an important realization—I'm wearing socks and slippers.

Of course I am. Why would I not be wearing socks and slippers?

I look down to ensure I'm not wearing anything else ridiculous. I'm mostly fine apart from the aforementioned article; I'm wearing a plain gray t-shirt and, of course, my gray cargo shorts. I lucked out, though, since I ended up in my large gray winter jacket, which is doing a good job at keeping me warm. I've actually got my Razer headphones wrapped around my neck, but they're not plugged into anything, so they aren't doing me any good. I tuck them into my hood to keep them out of the snow; they could prove useful later.

I do a quick check of my pockets. No phone, as I discovered earlier, but I do have my wallet. Unfortunately, this wallet has no cash in it, but it does have my debit card, which has a pretty healthy sum on it. I have a few loose coins and a package of tissues, but that's it. Feeling fully prepared to brave the winter frontier, I march onward.

For the sake of my mental health, I start to count the positive things about this situation. First, I'm clothed. Second, I've got my wallet. Third, I'm not home, and finally...I don't actually know. I had to force myself to come up with those three things; this situation is pretty terrible. Well, even if I die, I'll die alone and undiscovered, so nobody will have to happen upon my body by accident and freak out.

Okay, that got dark quickly. Subject change.

The cit's getting closer. I can also make out a huge castle-like building behind it with several different tiers. Each tier has a differently colored roof, and they surround a spire-like structure that juts out high into the sky. I'm pretty sure there's nothing like it on Earth, but I can't have just been abducted and tossed onto some alien world, all while I slept. It's just impossible; I would have woken up.

Right?

I shake my head frantically. This is going nowhere; I need to focus. I steel myself and quicken my pace towards the city. The longer I stay out here, the lower my chances of survival are. I don't know much about surviving in the wilderness, but even I know that snow like this doesn't do me any favors. I've said it before, but things are looking bleak.

After maybe a minute of continuous walking, I make it to the edge of the city. It's a small settlement; perhaps one might call it a town. Every one of the buildings has a domed roof, each with a different bright color. Most of them are reds, blues, greens, and pinks, but there are a few yellows and oranges here as well. I look around for a few seconds and rack my brain trying to think of places I know that match this description. Once I'm satisfied that I still have no idea where I am, I walk into the town and try to orient myself.

The people here are oddly dressed, to say the least. Some of them are wearing armor, but most are wearing more typical clothes that are oddly thin for the weather—though I suppose I can't talk about thin clothes while I wear shorts and a t-shirt under an unzipped jacket. It almost looks like something from a game or anime.

To my left is an information desk manned by two young women (that was a weird sentence). They both look remarkably similar, with medium-length blonde hair and...maid uniforms? Huh. And nobody's saying anything, either. Is this typical here? I swear, this place just gets weirder by the minute...

"Hello," I say as I walk up to the woman on the left. "I'm a little lost; would you please tell me where I am right now?"

She gives me a look as if I'm the stupidest person alive, but she quickly replaces it with a warm smile. She's really trying here. "You're at the gate to 64 Town, on the southeastern end of Lowee." She reaches into a space beneath the counter and pulls out a map, unfolding it and placing it on the counter. She uncaps a marker and circles a seemingly random point. "That's here. I'm sure you can recognize the Basilicom..." She circles another point, "...but I'll circle some other helpful things for you to know."

I just nod along, having not fully processed what she said. "T-Thanks. I really appreciate it."

"No problem," she says, handing me the map after drawing some more stuff on it. "You should try and get back home as soon as possible. Lowee is a rough place to get lost in."

"Y-Yeah. Thanks again." I walk off without another word and start reading the map, before I stop dead in my tracks in the middle of the road. The receptionist's words start replaying in my head.

Lowee. Basilicom. Lowee. Basilicom.

Those words can only mean one thing.

"Damnit!"

000

After being warned by a police officer to not swear publicly again, I'm walking hurriedly to god knows where. I'm in Lowee, which means I'm in Gamindustri, which means I'm in the world of Hyper Dimension Neptunia. I've dreamed of this moment for a long time. Getting to meet the CPUs, IF and Compa, and all the other lovable characters I recognize is something I've wanted to do for about a year. It's obviously just been a pipe dream—I'd never do something so silly as buy a body pillow or claim that anime is real (much as I'd like it to be)—but now that I'm actually here, there's a few big problems in my way.

I will never meet the CPUs. I will probably never meet IF or Compa, either. I don't think I'll even meet RED, for godesses' sake (I need to start getting used to saying that now). I'll probably just end up being some NPC for the rest of my days, serving food or something. I say that, but even that assumes that I survive long enough to actually make it past a week or so in this world. I have no money, and I know nobody here. Well, I know some people, but they don't know me, and it'd probably be best if I acted like I don't know them.

Ugh. Enough panicking. I need to make a plan.

First off, who am I? I'm not me. "I'm" probably dead. What's the first name that comes to mind, then? Graham Augustus. Sounds stupid, but just passable enough to be a Neptunia supporting character (there's somebody whose name is MAGES., for goddesses' sake). I'm from Lowee, and I'm training to be a Guild Agent. Why a Guild Agent? Well, that's the best career path I can think of that gives me a chance of influencing the CPUs' lives, and assuming I regularly take quests, it has a decent income rate.

For now, though, I need a simple job. A job that even I could do. A job that is so banal that it's pretty much a joke among higher-class people. I might actually need two jobs, but I'll figure that one out later.

It's time to become a fast food worker.

I open up my map and read it over, looking specifically for fast-food restaurants. I can pinpoint my own location rather well, since I never moved too far from the gate where I was given the map. There's a Burger Queen near me, and a McDonalds not too far off from there. I'll get a day job at one and a graveyard shift at the other, and assuming they both pay me minimum wage, that should be...

$7.25 per hour for 30 days is...

Wait, they use Credits here. What's minimum wage in Credits? Oh, forget it. I'll just hope that Lowee's generous enough to give me some decent pay and take it from there.

000

Two stressful interviews later, I have two jobs: one at Burger Queen for the day, and another at McDonalds for the night. The Burger Queen is a pretty standard 9-to-5 shift, and the McDonalds shift takes me from 9 PM to 5 in the morning. Those are pretty brutal hours, but damnit, I need money. I'll bear it for a while and see how my pay is, then take things from there.

Now that I have future prospects secured, I'll need to think about what to do about my living situation. I have no house, but there was a back alley around the corner by the Burger Queen that I can sleep in whenever I actually get the chance to sleep. I'll have to skip breakfast and dinner, but I take my lunch break at Burger Queen, and I can just eat food from there.

Next on my list of priorities is hygiene. I am literally penniless, so unless I find some loose Credits hanging around, I can't afford to use a laundromat to keep my clothes clean. Luckily, a quick look at my map reveals to me that there's a public gym not too far away from the gate to 64 Town, so I can bum their shower every so often. It's kind of a degenerate move, but needs must. As far as clothing goes, I'll have to sort that out later, but it looks like my standards will need to be a lot lower from here on out.

Finally comes mental health. Working two jobs like this is _terrible _for both my physical and mental health. I'll barely get any sleep, and the sleep I do get will be limited to the hours of 5 to about 8:30, to give myself time to walk over to McDonalds and still be early (early is on-time, as some would say). Fortunately, minimum wage in Lowee is pretty generous. I did the calculations and I'm looking at 5,670 Credits at the end of the month. It's not a whole lot, but it's a start. If I spend either very little or none of it, I'll have 11,340 Credits after two months, and that's probably enough to buy a weapon and start my Agent career.

I'm excited now. Just two months of hard work, and I have my ticket to a life filled with fun, adventure, and excitement. Granted, it's also filled with potentially deathly encounters with monsters and lots of arduous work, but nothing in this life worth having comes for free. I'll pay my dues and work my ass off to get to where I want to be.

Which reminds me: am I in the plot of one of the games right now? If I am, then I'm in trouble—in two month's time, the CPU's and their companions will have far surpassed my level and I'll be left behind forever until the plot of a new game starts, and by then, I might be too old to participate. I guess I'll just have to hope and pray that the story starts after two months have passed, and that it's something in my league.

I'm doing a lot of hoping right now, but there's not much else I can do, is there?

000

After a bit of a time skip, one month has passed and I have my first paychecks. I haven't slept properly in a month, nor have I eaten breakfast or dinner, but I signed up for those things anyway. I also smell patently terrible, but that can be fixed rather easily. I've taken (relatively) routine showers at the public gym as planned, and I'm now walking out of a store after having bought some deodorant and some gloves. These two things were relatively cheap and only cost me 300 Credits total, so I lucked out in that regard.

I'm on my way to the laundromat to wash my clothes and sort out a new plan. It's only now that I realize that I don't have any other clothes to wear while this outfit is getting washed, but no one else is here. I guess I'll just have to stay away from the windows or something.

Enough about that; let's just get this done. It's five Credits to use each machine. I slot in the appropriate funds and sit on a nearby chair, thinking intensely. I now have 5,365 Credits available for use. I have the choice to spend some of it now on miscellaneous things, or wait another month and get a much greater budget as previously planned. Assuming I wash my clothes like this once a week, that's 10 Credits down the drain every week for another month, so about 30 total. Under ideal circumstances, that's all I'll be spending before I get my next paycheck, but I never like to assume.

I'm going to prepare myself for the possibility of losing up to 1,000 Credits before the month ends. That would leave me with exactly 10,000 Credits if I'm doing my math right—still not a bad amount, but a good weapon will probably eat up almost all of that money. I'll need to brace myself for the chance of losing at least 6,000 Credits right out the gate, especially since I want to use a shotgun as my first weapon.

Oh, the washer is done. Just toss that into the dryer and load another five Credits...

Anyhow, I have to be very careful with my money, and be extremely careful not to lose any. Doing so will ruin this immaculate plan of mine and basically destroy my chances at survival. That basically summarizes what I was thinking about before, right?

There's something I needed to do, though. I was careful to remove everything from my pockets before putting my clothes into the wash, so I grab my wallet off of the top of one of the washing machines. Opening it, I look inside and take out both my ID card and my debit card. I frown as I look at them. These are useless to me now. I'm not who I was on the ID card anymore; my hair has grown so much that people wouldn't recognize me anymore, and my eyes probably have at least sixteen bags under them. And the debit card is useless to me because dollars are meaningless to the people in Gamindustri. It's funny, in a way—I was so proud of all of my money when I was in my own world, but now that I'm here, it's completely useless to me.

I take out the ID card and take a closer look at it. It lists my parent's names. My heart hurts a bit as I read them and I realize that I'll probably never see them again. I once thought that I'd be glad to be rid of my world and the people in it, and for the most part, I am. But knowing that I'll never see my family again hurts in a way that I never thought anything could. I snap the ID card into two, then into four. I can't stand to look at it anymore. It's just a reminder of a world that I'm not in anymore—a world that I left behind. I bury it in the snow outside.

Next is the debit card. I'm much more reluctant to break this one, and I don't know why. All it is now is a useless dust collector. It no longer has value. It can't buy me anything anymore, and I can't use it as a symbol of status to make myself feel superior to others. It's just a worthless piece of plastic, so why can't I bring myself to break it? Is it because I'm too attached to the concept of money? Because I don't want to let go of the one thing that mattered to me, in my previous life? I growl and put it back in my wallet.

The dryer stops and I hurriedly open it, throwing my clothes on hastily. I open the pack of gloves and put them on, stretching my fingers out and clenching my fists. They fit well, and they'll last a long time. I put everything back into my pockets and set back out to 64 Town, to work for another month and get my new life started for real.

What a wonderful world.


	2. Chapter 2: Excitement

**AN: The first chapter of this fic went much better than expected, netting 11 favorites and 23 follows at the time of writing this AN. Definitely not what I had anticipated, but hey, I'll take it. Anyhow, onto the reviews.**

**Coolka121212 (amazing username, I must say)**: I agree. I don't like stories like that, where a regular human somehow is loved by and influences all of the goddesses within moments of their arrival. If I got warped into Gamindustri, I'd worry more about survival and a source of income than about getting to meet my waifus.

P.S: I love the profile picture. You're a man/woman/person of taste.

**Porpol** **(the man/woman/person of the hour [well, one of them]):**Please don't feel "compelled" to read my garbage just because you inspired it. If it's trash, then say so.

Onto your actual review: you're absolutely right about your point regarding the intro. I realized two major flaws with these first chapters a bit too late. The first is that, as you said, they're a bit too similar to Shattersoul's, and set up the story to be like his when I want to take it in a completely different direction. The second is that they're slow, and although they set the mood that I want, they don't do it in a way that's very entertaining to read and that forwards the plot.

**Cobaltroid:** Thank you for your review, and the positive message. I answer one of your wishes in this chapter, but the other...not so much. You'll see what I mean.

**That's all for reviews. Please let me know if this format for ANs works; it seems like it could be a little awkward. Also, a request: if one of you lovely fellas could somehow give me a list of _some _VII monsters and their levels (no specific details are needed, but a general summary of their anatomy [just say size and if they walk or fly] will be appreciated), that'd be greatly appreciated. I need it for the future, and right now, the only source I have is the Bestiary page on the Neptunia wiki, which is...not that great (it's actually terrible, but I'm sure someone tried really hard for it)****. Thanks in advance.**

**With that out of the way, let's begin!**

000

I drearily stumble out of McDonalds, holding my paycheck in the air. I now have exactly 11,000 Credits to my name, which should be enough to purchase a weapon and get my career as an Agent begun. After two months, my new life in Gamindustri can finally begin.

Oh yeah, the second month. It was a grueling one, which is why I didn't say much about it. I almost got fired from both of my jobs several times for my lack of sleep because it "offput customers", but I managed to keep them both somehow. Plus, unlike the first month, I actually got to wash my clothes regularly, so I didn't constantly smell like a wild animal. Unfortunately, though, I can hardly walk in a straight line, and even the dim light of the street lamps is giving me a headache.

I sit (well, more like collapse) onto a bench just outside the McDonalds and stuff my pay into my pockets. Looking up, I can actually see the stars; before, in my own world, I couldn't ever see them due to light pollution (or actual pollution). They're a mesmerizing sight, like little jewels on the abyssal black canvas of space.

_The night sky of Gamindustri_, I think to myself, awestruck. _What a wonderful sight_. I close my eyes and sigh, and it isn't long before I let myself drift to a restful sleep for the first time in two months.

000

_"They're liars, cheats, and thieves, the lot of them. And they won't hesitate to betray you if it nets them some money."_

_"You can become smarter, faster, _better _than all of them...but at a cost."_

_"Look at yourself! Weak, cowardly, and pathetic! It's no wonder that they all _hate you_!"_

_"Love is a selfish thing. Whether it's for money, power, fame, or an emotional response, people only love others for something they can gain. I swore to myself that I would never again be deceived into 'loving' another person, and look at where that's gotten me."_

I jolt awake, clutching at my head and fighting the urge to yell and scream. I look around in a panic, and see people looking at me with confusion and concern written on their faces. It's morning now, and the sun is high in the sky. How long was I out for? And what were those voices I heard just now? They almost sounded like...

I shake my head, tossing my wild hair about. It's nothing to worry about now; I'm sure those were just events in whatever crazy dream I was having. I've had some weird dreams before, so this isn't really anything new. I get up slowly but stumble a bit; it seems my lack of sleep is finally catching up to me. But I can't rest now, damnit! I'm so close!

I head to the gun store that I outlined on my map earlier in the month. It's on the northern end of Lowee, but a few shortcuts through alleys and back roads can cut the travel time considerably. With a renewed vigor, I start to fill my head with all of the possibilities once I get my Guild certification done.

I'll finally get to meet some people I recognize. IF will have to wait until I gain more renown, but I can probably meet some of the more minor Makers like RED. Actually, forget that—meeting RED is a curse, not a blessing. I think I'll hedge my bets until I become a more well-known Guild Agent, then move to Planeptune and try to coordinate a "chance" meeting with the Wind Walker of Gamindustri.

That sounded kinda creepy now that I think about it, but the point still stands.

000

"Welcome! Take a look around and see what you'd like. If you have any questions, just ask me, and I'll be right with you," the clerk of the gun shop greets. She's a young woman (of course) with medium-length black hair. For an NPC, she looks surprisingly nice, with well-tailored clothes that match her body almost perfectly. Granted, it's a simple hoodie with the name of the store printed on it and some jeans, but they look quite nice and the design is simple and appealing.

"Thanks; I think I'll take you up on that," I say with a nod, looking around at the selection. For a small shop, this place has a lot of choices. I can see shotguns, semi-automatic rifles, lever action and bolt action rifles, handguns, and even some training rifles, and those are just the ones I can name. I already have an idea of what I want, but it's good to have options for when I return later on. After a bit of perusing the goods, I ask the clerk, "I'm looking for a shotgun fit for a beginner going for no more than 10,000 Credits. Do you have anything like that?"

She gives a quick nod and takes a gun off of the shelf behind her, laying it on the counter. "This brand of shotgun is pretty popular with upstart adventurers. It's a 12-gauge that packs a punch, but with manageable recoil. It uses a drum magazine, so it has good ammo capacity, and it has a shoulder strap for ease of carrying." I can verify a lot of what she's saying with my eyes, but for some reason, hearing her say it makes me more willing to purchase this gun. "It goes for 9,000 Credits, and since it's your first gun, I'll include a cleaning kit and a handler's manual along with it."

That was just icing on top of the highly-lethal cake. "I'll take it," I agree, before I remember something that could toss a wrench into my plans. I nervously broach the subject, "So...I'm new to this whole 'weapon owning' thing. Do I need a license, or...?"

She shakes her head with a smile. "No, actually. Gamindustri's laws on weapons are pretty lax. You don't need a license to own a weapon, but if you commit an armed crime, you're put under very strict regulations."

I do a mental victory dance as she says that. It does make sense, though; if you needed a license to own a weapon, much less people would be willing to become Guild Agents, which could lead to a problematic influx in the monster population. I reach into my pockets and produce the 9,000 Credits, and slide them across the counter. "I'll buy it. Thank you for your business."

She nods and takes the money, handing me the gun. "Give me a moment, and I'll have the other included items." She ducks beneath the counter and comes back up a second later with a black bag with highly convenient strings to hold on my back. "This has the cleaning supplies and the handler's manual in it. Good luck with your weapon, sir!" She shoots me a cheerful smile, but I don't think I'm ready to be called 'sir' just yet.

Oh, well—I was called 'Master' when I went to a doctor's appointment once. I'll just roll with it.

"Thank you, ma'am," I shoot back as I collect my stuff, getting ready to head out. "I'll have a blast with it, I'm sure."

Game time started.

000

The Guild is a large, one-floored building, the outside of which is simply labeled "Lowee Guild for Adventurers and Questers". It has small square windows spaced with about a meter in between them, and a decorative glass revolving door. I stand outside awkwardly with a goofy smile on my face, staring at the building and taking it in.

_This is it, _I think to myself, my whole body shaking with excitement. _My life as a Guild Agent starts now._

I take tentative steps forward into the revolving door, being careful not to embarrass myself by getting caught in the mechanism. I walk in and take in the inside of the building, which is a lot more impressive than the outside. It's split into two halves: the left side has what appears to be the reception and registration area, and the right side has computers that seem to be where Agents accept and return quests. Lots of people are heading in and out, so I move over to the left side as quickly as possible to stay out of the way.

"Welcome," one of the receptionists says to me. She's freakishly similar to the information desk workers I met when I first arrived here; she has the exact same appearance and everything. "Are you here to register with the Guild?"

I nod. "Yes. I'm assuming I need to fill out a form of some sort?"

She shoots me an affirmative nod back and hands me a clipboard and a pen. Attached to the clipboard is a rather lengthy form that looks a lot like those papers you have to fill out the first time you go to a doctor, asking me for my name, age, preferred gender (who knew Gamindustri was so progressive?), desired title, and a bunch of other odd stats that nobody really needs to know (why does it ask me for my shoe size?).

I start to fill it out as quickly as possible, anxious to get to the end. I cringe when I have to read "Othelius Zoroaster Graham Augustus" again, but my elation comes back as I fill out my age with a small white lie, as usual. How many people actually tell the truth on forms when asked for their age anyway?

I'm a comfortable male, so that's easy, but the title is where things get tougher. I've already given myself a terrible name, so I can either choose an equally terrible title for myself, or try and redeem my social standing and choose something passable among my future peers.

...I never cared about other people's opinions, anyway. I fill in the line with the first title to come to mind, and move on. After some mindless writing and a discreet look at the tag on my slipper, I hand the form back to the receptionist, who reads it over. She then scans it on her computer, and after an affirmative ding sounds, she looks up at me with a smile.

"Welcome to the Guild, Agent Ozymandias. Good luck." Poor lady, having to recite everyone's titles like that with a smile. I can only imagine some of the horrors she's had to say because of some prankster.

With nary more than a nod, I head over to the right side, where I stand in front of a computer. Before I can even reach my hand up to touch it, it starts to power on, displaying a charming welcome message with my name and title. After a few moments, it fully loads, giving me the option to redeem a quest or accept a new one. I click the latter, and it opens a long list of available quests, ranging from simple fetch or kill quests to the more advanced sneak or escort quests. Next to each quest is a level recommendation, and some quests actually require that I be above a certain level before I can take them on.

A quick look to the top left corner of the screen reveals to me that I'm currently level 5, so I can basically only do the most banal of quests, but I don't care. I worked two jobs for two months to get to this point; I'll take any form of quest that's available. I accept a kill quest in the field outside of 64 Town (fittingly named "Newbie Plains") and grin.

It's showtime.

000

After some trudging through the snow, I stop to look around once I reach my target. It turns out that Newbie Plains is where I spawned into this world, which is a bit odd—there weren't any monsters when I first got here, but there's Pixelvaders running amok now. And I can just make out the figure of a massive, red-furred monkey in the distance...wait...

"No," I deny, turning away from the monster. I refuse to allow it to contaminate my experience here; I know it all too well. I still haven't figured out how to access my inventory, so I have to manually draw my shotgun from my back, but that's fine; it makes me look cooler anyhow. I look around and spot a single Pixelvader isolated from its companions, and start to walk towards it.

Once I get close enough, a chime plays and it turns towards me, levitating menacingly on the spot. I pause for a moment and stare at the Pixelvader as I think: Neptunia is turn-based combat, but given that I'm actually in the world and not just playing the games, I probably shouldn't expect it to be like that. It's probably either real-time combat like in Xenoblade, or a more complex system that I shudder to think about.

My thoughts are interrupted as the Pixelvader lets out a cry and flies towards me, giving me barely enough time to dodge. It dashes past me and recovers about half a meter away, and it looks to be readying for another attack. Not looking for another close call, I raise my gun, take aim, and shoot. I nearly lose my balance from the recoil, but it seems to hurt the Pixelvader, at least enough to elicit a pained wail. Pressing the initiative, I shoot again at the monster and then rush in, finishing it off with a buttstrike to its head.

As it dispels into data, it drops some Credits and an SP Charger. I don't think I'll have any use for the Charger, but those Credits will do me great service in the foreseeable future. I pick them up and stuff them into my bag, then set my sights on the other Pixelvaders. They don't really seem to care that I just killed one of their own, since they're floating about as if they haven't seen me at all. With a shrug, I take a potshot at one of them, and it cries out in surprise. This time, though, it alerts its friend, and they both start slowly approaching me.

I back away from the two monsters, aiming at the one I just shot. They both break out into a high-speed charge towards me, forcing me to roll to the side. As I recover, I shoot at the one closest to me, then quickly get back up and shoot again. That does away with the first Pixelvader, but the second manages to get close and slam into my side.

"Gah!" I grunt, stumbling over and barely maintaining my balance. The monster flies towards me again, but I raise my arm to block the blow this time. As it impacts, I swing my arm to the side, tossing the Pixelvader off and dazing it. I follow up with a carefully placed shot, killing it. It drops only Credits, which I stuff into my bag. I was meant to kill three more, so I hop to it and rush towards the remaining enemies.

This is fun!

000

After successfully dispatching the Pixelvaders, I make my way back to the Guild and check into one of the computers, choosing the option to return the quest. Apparently I'm now level 6 and about halfway to the next level—I guess I didn't notice my level-up in the middle of the battle. I collect my reward of 750 Credits and a Healing Grass with a bit of a grumble; all my excitement from joining the Guild seems to have faded away.

"Would've been better to have this during the Quest..." I curse, stuffing it into my bag; I really need to figure out how to access my inventory. I return to the list of quests and sigh wearily, accepting all of the ones that seem to be in my level range.

I've changed my mind; this isn't nearly as fun as I thought it'd be.


	3. Chapter 3: Switching Things Up & AN

**ADDENDUM:**** This chapter is going to be in the wrong format. The reason for this is that the FFN app is sorta giving up on me. I explain it a bit later, but this is an addendum I made when I realized that the chapter would have to be uploaded like this, so I'll give more details. I think that the document is trying to normalize all of the text to be of only _one _justification, and that having the AN in center justification and the chapter itself in left justification is making the app glitch out. When I put everything on left justify or center justify, the issue stopped. It seems like I'll have to deal with this format, but if anybody has a fix, please send it to me ASAP. I'll leave a reminder at the end of the chapter as well.**

**AN: I ****had every intention of uploading this yesterday (on schedule), but I had to help my family pack for our move and I lost track of time. Things sh****ould be back to schedule soon, especially since school gets out this week! I'll therefore have a lot more free time. Also, these chapters have been suffering from format issues because of the stupid FFN app (if you want the details: the names in the ANs lose their bold typeface and the entire chapter gets center-justified for some reason [I think the app is crying because the ANs are center-justified but the text isn't, but I have no idea how to fix this]), so bear with me if it looks like that even in publication. I'll try and fix it as soon as possible.**

**The chapters are going to start getting longer from here on out, and I'm also going to...actually start the plot (whoop de doo). It'll be a bit vague at first, but things will become clear in due time. In addition, I've taken you guys' reviews into consideration (specifically Porpol, thanks for your suggestions) and I'm going to start modifying my writing to make things better. Anywho, on to last chapter's reviews.**

**Lord of Tee: **It totally sounds like a chuuni thing, doesn't it? It's almost like what you'd get if you took a generic edgy kid off the street and propped him into Neptunia...wait...

**Edmond dante ftgo: **Megadimension Neptunia VII. Desafortunadamente, yo no habla Español (Esto fue Google Translate.)

**Porpol: **I can't touch on everything, unfortunately, so I'll just touch on the major points.

First, I didn't realize how many similarities there were between your story and mine until you pointed them out just now. This looks really bad for me, doesn't it? Well, things will change starting next chapter (and even a bit in this one, hopefully), so I'm not too worried about looking like a plagiarist. As for your point about the SI not using his name, this actually **does become important later. **You'll start to see the outline of why in this chapter, but the big reveal comes later. It'll seem stupid and weird and confusing for now, but it'll come up later on, so keep an eye out.

As for the weapons, boy am I lucky...I realized that same thing and got to fixing it _quick _in this chapter. A shotgun is just so hard to write a pleasing fight scene with. Roll out of the way, shoot, dodge again...it's very formulaic. Perhaps it could be used to make a point about the SI's combative simplicity, but I don't feel confident enough to try and tackle something like that.

As mentioned above, the chapters are going to start getting longer, so don't worry about that. As for the line breaks, I noticed it too, and I'm going to try and use them less. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the convenient little line thing that I'm assuming is limited to the desktop version (I write using the app), so you'll be stuck with the 000 thing when I do use them.

Thanks for the feedback and the positive support. It really means a lot.

**Hclegend:** I was the same way for a little while. The very concept of SI fics left a horrid taste in my mouth. In truth, I read Shattersoul's story thinking to myself: "Hoo boy, let's see how bad this one will be", only to be pleasantly surprised. Though it isn't a "true" SI story, Porpol's story did the same and inspired me to try my hand. I'm glad I was able to help be a part of the "good" batch of SI stories in your opinion.

**Coolka121212: **Meeting RED could either be a very good or a very horrid thing. As a male, I'd be an immediate target of her suspicion, but at the same time, she'd probably make questing a lot more enjoyable, if only for a bit. The negatives definitely outweigh the positives for her, though. And there's nothing quite like forming your username via Google, is there?

**Shattersoul (Humina humina humina...):** Ooh boy, am I scared now that you've actually noticed this story. This chapter is making my nerves stand on end because it's the most important one yet (in that it's actually important). If it succeeds, I think it'll do very well, but if it doesn't, the story's probably going to fall into a hole that will be difficult to recover from. I have therefore adopted my age-old strategy of leaving things to fate to decide the course of things and not making too many unnecessary changes.

And about the McDonalds thing—I had originally intended to change the name of it to something else (like How Burger King became Burger Queen), but I could not think of anything for the life of me. I then decided to just give up and go with the old classic. I wish you luck on your story, and I ask for your solemn prayers that mine doesn't die in a fire.

**Also, I'm highly disappointed with you guys (no I'm not) for never giving me that list of monsters. I'm going to put it at the end of this chapter, too, since I really need that list. I guess no one really reads the bold sections of these ANs, do they? Ah, well...it's whatever, I guess. So long as I get it in the end, right?**

**With that out of the way, let's begin!**

000

Much to my chagrin, joining the Guild din't actually change much about the way I lived. It gave me a much better source of income that allowed me to drop both of my fast-food jobs, but that was the only major shift. Otherwise, I've been living the same life as before for the past few days, lack of sleep and all (it felt too awkward to have so much free time at night, so I took up the habit of taking late-hour quests), though I have been able to wash my clothes on a regular basis. Couple that with a bar of deodorant that I bought a few days ago and my continue ued routine trips to the public gym to shower, and I've been smelling better than ever.

My career as a Guild Agent has been going swimmingly thanks to my dedication. I've grinded myself up to level 9 and have been taking on progressively more complex quests.

Something that did change, though, was the status of my headphones. After doing a bunch of quests and not buying anything at all for a day, I managed to pool together my money and buy a middle-of-the-road MP3 player, and I've since been downloading songs as I've pleased. Though I mainly listen to classical music, there were a few stock songs by 5pb. that I've come to grudgingly enjoy despite myself. Though I don't usually enjoy that genre, there's some unexplainable allure about her music that keeps me coming back for more.

That sounded a bit weirder than I intended it to be, but the message is the same.

I'm currently on my way to the gun shop that I had visited before to pick up a new weapon. My shotgun handles fine—I read and reread the gun handler's manual thrice in order to ensure that—but I'm looking for variety, since my current weapon is just a bit boring on longer quests. I plan to be swapping in between my weapons, too, so things are looking up in the "enjoyment" department of my questing.

After a bit of a walk, I arrive in the gun store and instinctively look around, taking in the selection of wares that has remained unchanged since last time. A smile graces my face as I walk up to the counter and see the same clerk as before smile to greet me.

"Welcome back!" She chirps, pulling out her earphones and setting her phone aside. "What are you looking for this time?"

"A pair of machine pistols. I've got much more money this time, though, so can I see your full selection please?"

She nods. "Sure thing. Let me pick out a few of the more popular kinds, along with some of the higher-end guns we have." She rummages around on the shelf behind her before pulling out five pairs of guns, spacing them out evenly and letting me inspect them. "It is a bit odd, though, going from a shotgun to machine pistols. I would've thought that you would've looked for a rifle, if you were looking for a second weapon."

"I had considered it," I say, eyeing each of the weapons closely, "but I thought to myself that if I start taking group quests, it's best to be more versatile than that. Eventually I settled on these, and—" My words catch in my throat as I behold two veritable beauties of guns.

They're relatively standard Uzi-shaped pistols, with long extended mags protruding from the bottom. Both guns are a jet black color and are polished enough to reflect the light being cast on them, though the left-handed gun has what looks to be a red jewel ensconced into the right side of the barrel, and the right-handed gun has a blue jewel in the left side of its barrel. The most defining feature of the guns, though, are the blades attached to the undersides of the barrels—the gun with the red jewel has a jagged, burning red blade while the gun with the blue jewel has a similar blade of a cool blue color.

"Ah, it caught your eye, didn't it?" The clerk offhandedly asks, noticing my fascination with them. "I don't know if they have a name, but my pa called them the Switcheroos. They're powerful gunknives, but they take a real gunslinger in order to master them. I'd suggest you get more practice with the weapon type before you—"

"How much for them?" A feeling is coursing through me right now that I can only describe as pure desire. I don't care how much it costs or how terrible my performance is going to be; I want those guns, and nobody else can have them.

She lets out a nervous chuckle. "A-Are you sure? I was just saying how difficult they are to master, and since you're a beginner gunslinger, let alone machine pistol user, you should—"

"I'll put in the effort," I interrupt her again. "How much for them?"

A pensive expression appears on the clerk's face, as if she's mulling over life itself. "30,000 Credits," she finally says, and I gawk at her. "W-What? They're powerful weapons! Of course the price is going to be high!"

I expected this, yes, but I didn't expect them to be so far out of my price range. I'm working on a budget of 17,000 Credits, and it took me several sleepless days to reach this point. It'll take me at least half a week to get that much money! "I'll...come back for them later."

She looks at me for a moment and sighs, sliding them towards me. "I guess I'll give 'em to you at a discount. Nobody else has bought these things in so many years, after all. But! This comes on two conditions. The first is that you hand over as much of the price you can pay, no lies."

I wait for her to continue, but seeing as she won't until I actually comply, I fish into my bag and fork over all 17,000 of my sweet, sweet, Credits. She nods and continues, "The second condition is that you learn to truly master these weapons. Guns aren't like swords or bows in that they don't need a master to use. Just about anyone could pick up a rifle and shoot something decently accurately. What makes them so devastating is their raw power—you won't find another weapon that can deal as much damage in a single strike as a gun.

But just like a villain can use a sword and do great damage, they can use a gun and do even more. There's things you can do with a gun that you just can't do with any other weapon. I need you to master these weapons, and swear to yourself that you won't ever point them at another person without intent to kill painlessly, quickly, and justly."

I'm taken aback for a moment, but I manage to stutter out, "Y-Yes. I won't ever use them to kill another person unless they've threatened myself or my family. And I'll take it upon myself to master them, too, don't you worry. I'll be the best damn gunslinger in the world, apart from Lady Black Sister herself."

She smiles and nods at me, taking the Credits and giving me the guns. "Give 'em hell, then. And don't forget that I'll find you and make you regret it if you become some generic villain."

I nod and take the guns, turning to walk out. They fit right into my palms and send an energizing chill down my spine. My enthusiasm returns for a bit before I remember something important—I still need to learn how to handle these things.

Ah, well. No time like the present.

000

I decided to take on a kill quest targeting a flock of Chocopi that had been getting territorial of a patch of prospecting land just outside 64 Town. It sure as hell can't be farmland, given the climate, and if it's going to be a business building, it doesn't look any different from typical ground. It might be a game shop or something, but I'm probably thinking too hard about it.

I chose this quest as my aim training because it was a moderate level 8 quest, but also because Chocopi are medium sized targets—not too big to be easy to hit, and not too small to make it near impossible. The reward is rather small at only 200 Credits, but I don't care too much at the moment; I'm much too excited now that I've purchased the Switcheroos.

The area that I now find myself in is completely indistinguishable from Newbie Plains, but it's been labeled as the Jublee Snowfields and has completely different monsters. In the distance, I can spot the Chocopi that I've been requested to kill gathering around a spot on the ground like some cult proceeding. Do Chocopi have a culture? I'd feel pretty guilty about killing something with a culture, language, psyche, society, and...

Ah, I'm kidding myself. I won't feel bad at all.

I draw the Switcheroos out of my pockets and give them a gentle squeeze. Feeling confident, I start walking towards the group of birds and stop about two meters away from them, taking aim. Once I've got my target in my sights, I open fire upon them in a short burst. My wrist jerks upward and I end up missing most of my shots, but the ones that did hit attract the attention of two of the Chocopi. The others remain in their circle, apparently undisturbed by me shooting at one of their own.

The two Chocopi swing to my sides in an attempt to flank me, and I start to panic. Having never dealt with this sort of situation, I follow my first instinct and dodge their combined charge attack by rolling forward, causing the two birds to jerk to an abrupt stop and narrowly avoid colliding with each other. In the time it takes me to reorient myself, though, one of the birds has already charged at me again with an outstretched claw, forcing me to narrowly dodge again. Luckily, though, I was able to draw my left gun and slash at the Chocopi, dealing a cut to its breast and causing it to cry out. Unfortunately, though, the cut was light and it seems more annoyed than anything else.

I stumble backwards as the Chocopi group up and start to slowly approach me. Looking behind me, I see that the big group is just a few meters back, forcing me to awkwardly shift to the side in order to avoid accidentally backing into them. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, concentrating my focus—I have to bet everything on one chance, and if I fail, I could very well meet my end at the claws of two mindless birds. No, I won't _allow _that. 

I break into a dash towards the left Chocopi. It seems to be caught off guard, as it tries to back off and get out of the way, but it's too late to matter. I hold my guns in front of me and press down the triggers on both, landing several shots in the bird's chest and tossing my wrists around. It wails and falters for a moment, allowing me to tackle it to the ground and rip into it with the Switcheroos' blades. With animalistic brutality, I stab into the beast and slash through sinew, meat, and bone, and despite the thing having died long ago, I keep tearing into it without pause.

Once I finally stop, the Chocopi disperses into data and drops some Credits, which I'm too dazed to pick up. With legs burning and crying out for mercy, I stumble to my feet and turn around, facing the other Chocopi. It's wearing an expression that I can only describe as...sad. It looks like it's in despair, and it even tries to fly to its fallen brother before it stops itself and backs off, clearly scared of me.

I look down at my hands, coated in blood and tightly clenching my gunknives. I caused that pain. I caused that sadness, and that despair. I mangled that Chocopi beyond recognition, and claimed its drops as little more than an afterthought. It makes me feel...sick. It makes me feel awful, almost like I've killed another human being.

But more than any of that? It makes me feel _powerful._

I run towards the second Chocopi. It isn't trying to fight back anymore; rather, it's trying to flee. Though it manages to elude me for a bit, I raise my guns and shoot towards it, clipping its left wing and dropping it to the ground with a skid. I bring my momentum into a jump and bring my guns above my head, driving the blades into the downed Chocopi's back. It cries out beneath me and flails for its life. Those cries are deafening to me. They drown out all other sound in the world.

The Chocopi stops moving and dispels into data. I pick up the dropped Credits and Healing Grass, using the former item immediately. It's dreadfully bitter. I look down at myself, and my eyes widen and start to quake.

Where did all this blood come from? Why is it on me? And why...why don't I feel anything at all?

I fall to my knees, still staring at my hands. My vision blurs, but I don't bother lifting an arm to wipe the tears spilling down my face. My hot, quickened breaths form little clouds as they meet the surrounding air, and the vapor only further irritates my eyes. I squeeze them shut, but that doesn't stop me from hearing choked sounds echoing throughout the empty air. Are those coming from me? When did I start to sob? Who...who am I?

The snow cushions my fall as I let the world take me.

000

I scream as I shoot up, hopping to a standing position. I clutch at my aching head and fall back to my knees as the world around me swims with color, but I can make out a few simple details of my surroundings. I'm leaning against a bed. It's got a comfortable mattress, and it's soft—soft enough to have an indentation in the shape of my side from my weight. It seems to be in a nice room, too, since I can faintly smell what seems to be lavender air freshener. The carpet underneath me is also quite soft, and it almost feels as if I'm sinking into it, but not enough to be uncomfortable.

My vision starts to return and I can see that I'm in a large hotel room, probably about twenty square meters. It has one large bed (which I'm leaning on now), a television screen on the wall farthest from me, and a large wall window to my right with thin curtains veiling it. The sun is the only light throughout the entire room, but it's bright enough to let me see the fine textures on the walls, as well as the flower design on the comforter. I rise to my feet and look around, and look down to check myself.

I'm wearing a beautiful white robe adorned with red and blue details coursing throughout it in the same flower pattern as on the comforter. It's light, yet not too thin and isn't see through. I'm also wearing house slippers, though unfortunately not with socks. I start to wonder where my actual clothes are before I hear the hum of what sounds like a dryer. What kind of hotel room has a dryer? Just where am I?

I let go of my head, the aching mostly gone. A frown comes over my face as I remember the things that brought me here. Those Chocopi...and I just...

My breath quickens and shallows. In an attempt to distract myself, I walk around the room to find the door leading to the laundry machines. I spot a sink and a door leading to the bathroom by the front door, and a large walk-in closet, all before turning open a door that was directly across from me when I woke up. I grumble to myself as I behold the laundry machines, and the dryer visibly shaking as it chugs away at my clothes. My jacket is hang-drying about half a meter off the ground, a small puddle of water underneath it.

"Could've just picked this one to begin with..." I grumble again, opening the dryer door. Once the clothes stop spinning, I stick my hand into the machine and confirm that they're dry. Carefully, I remove the robe and drape it over the top of the dryer, then quickly put on my shirt and shorts. Lastly, I grab my socks and sit atop the washing machine to put them on, jumping back off with a satisfied "hup".

Curious, I walk over and check my jacket. It's dry, too. Just how long was I out for? I put it on and put the robe on the hanger, not wanting it to get dirty. I then walk out of the laundry room and towards the front door, when I notice a table to my left with a basket of fruit and all of my weapons.

"Whoever took me here was nice enough to not rob me..." I mutter, grabbing the guns. I look at the Switcheroos for a bit and frown before stuffing them into my pockets. "Should pay them back sometime..." I take an apple from the fruit basket and bite into it, my eyes widening at the sweet and crunchy taste.

I know; I'll take one of these to thank my savior! Nothing better to thank someone with than a delicious, crunchy apple, right? I take one of the apples and put it in my bag, shifting some stuff around to try and keep it from getting crushed. After another quick check of my things, I open the front door and walk out, only to be immediately blown away.

I'm in an amazingly high-class building. To my left is a door that's been left ajar leading to a huge spiral staircase, reminiscent of what one might see in a stereotypical castle setting. Past that door and all the way down to my right is a long hallway dotted by doors that I assume to be to rooms like mine, and all along the floor is a beautiful rug adorned with the same floral pattern as the one in the room. Light is being provided by ebullient gold chandeliers across the entire length of the ceiling and is dancing across the walls, giving the floor a classical feel.

Clearing my nervousness, I walk out to the staircase and look up. There's an uncountable number of steps leading up, and as I look down, I can see that the same is true the other way. I then glance to my right and find a floor map on the wall, and as I start to read it, I find two cursed words at the top.

"Lowee Basilicom," it reads. My mouth falls agape into a massive frown.

I don't think I'll be needing that apple anymore.

I sigh as I check the floors again. I'm on the 56th floor, which is where the honored guest rooms begin. After five floors of guest rooms is the staff housing, followed by the National Archive (which I'm guessing is just Blanc's fancy way of calling her personal library), and finally, the top two floors are reserved for the CPUs. I won't be needing to go to those rooms, given that I'm a common mortal, but this Archive is piquing my interests. I begin my ascent of the stairs and look around me in awe at the beautiful architecture.

Everything seems to have an almost medieval feel to it. It makes sense, really—Nintendo is an _old _company, but it still commands the same power as the other big players in the console war...or I guess that would be the Console War, since it was an actual conflict in this world. There are more paintings all around me depicting olden Lowee and people whom I can only assume to be heroes of times long past. There's also a rug beneath me that seems to be acting like a mural of sorts, as there are graphic depictions of historical events adorned on it in gold.

I take a deep breath and quicken my pace. There's a lot of stairs, and since I'm climbing up to the 62nd floor, I'm going to be at this for a while. I allow my mind to wander as I walk, though I do my best to blot out that memory with the Chocopi. Just thinking about it in the slightest sends a deathly shiver down my spine—I need to maintain my composure here. I start to think about my home world in greater detail than I'd like—the big cities, the incessant honking of car horns, the urban lights at nighttime, the food...

And then there's all the stuff that I didn't mention. If I'm honest with myself, I really hated my old world. When I got warped into Gamindustri, I saw it as my chance to start over once and for all—to live a new life as somebody completely different, do different things, meet different people, and most of all, not have to listen to politics all day. Despite all the strife I had to go through for the first two months here, it's actually been...amazing. Being able to go on quests makes me feel like I can actually _change _things. Being a fast food worker, though banal, made me feel like I was _important _to someone. And, of course, being able to walk in the Basilicom...it makes me feel _valuable_, even though I haven't done much of anything here.

If there's a way home, I'm sure as hell not taking it. I've got a good thing going here, and to go back to that old place would be to waste it all on some concept of "home". As far as I'm concerned, Gamindustri is my home now. There's nothing waiting for me back "home" that I'm particularly keen on seeing.

Before I know it, I've ascended the steps to the 58th floor. My mind comes back to the mortal realm, so to speak, and I can feel that my legs are becginning to ache. I was never much of an athletic person, so unfortunately, even climbing two flights of stairs is a bit of a push for me. Luckily for me, though, I spot an elevator in front of me that I quickly get into. There was probably one on the 56th floor, too, but it's best for my mental health if I don't think about that too hard.

The elevator flight is quiet and extremely quick. After just a few moments, it spits me out on the 62nd floor, where I'm faced with a short hallway that leads to a huge set of double doors. Slowly, I walk over to the doors and push them open, revealing the National Archive. It's a massive room in the shape of a circle with semicircle bookshelves on either side of the room, and a long table in the middle presumably for studying. The walls are also lined with bookshelves, and the ceiling is suspended at least fifty meters up. I look around as I walk in, mouth agape in awe. I walk to my left, and I see a sign labeling this area as the "Science and Mathematics" section. Perfect.

I don't have nearly enough time or height to read the titles of all of these books, so after a bit of waking, I randomly pick out one from the shelf and look at the cover. It's a large book that has a sleek black leather binding that's cool to the touch (though that may just be the air conditioning in the library) and in gold letters at the top of the front are the words: _Conquering Death: Humanity's Age Old Quest for Immortality Recent Discoveries. _I grin as I behold it. Surely Blanc wouldn't mind if I take just one book...?

With the book in hand, I walk over to the table and sit down at the very end. I then lay the book down on the table and throw it open, eliciting a satisfying _crack _from the binding. I find the table of contents and start to read through it before I hear a voice to my right.

"A nonfiction science book? I never looked through that section much myself."

My eyes widen as I slowly look up at the one person I didn't want to see.

000

**This is a reminder for anybody who knows how to fix the formatting issues mentioned at the top to tell me how to fix them. I don't want to stick with this god-awful formatting any longer.**


	4. Chapter 4: A Failed Talk

**AN: So...that happened. We are going to pretend that the first publication of this chapter did not happen. We are also going to pretend that I did not take several weeks to upload this chapter. Jeez, for the fourth chapter, this isn't going well...Anywho! We are going to _pretend_ that all is well. Cool? Cool.**

**I found that I accidentally swapped the colors on the Switcheroos in the last chapter. I described the left gun as red and the right gun as blue when it should've been the other way around. We are going to continue this trend of deluding ourselves into thinking my writing is good by _pretending _that I described the colors correctly the first time around.**

**Anywho, enough self-deprecation. Onto reviews. **

Lord of Tee: Final boss character? What? I have no idea what you're talking about! ;)

Coolka121212: Hey man, I actually need two hands to count the number of friends I have, which is a big step up from just last year! ...I'm going to pretend I didn't say that. Thank you for your consistent reviews on this story. I hope you continue to enjoy it going forward.

**With that out of the way, let's begin!**

000

A bit startled, I look up at the new arrival to the library: Blanc herself. She's shorter than I expected, standing at what I assume to be around one and a half meters discounting her overly large hat (I'm convinced that she only wears that to appear taller). The look in her eyes seems...distant, almost, like she's not really here at all. It reminds me of...me, actually, after a long day at school or otherwise. She sits down in the chair diagonal from mine and sets down two of her own books on the table, though I can't see their titles from here.

"I always found scientific works to be...boring," Blanc deadpans, resting her head on her fist and looking away from me towards the shelves. "Do you actually enjoy reading those?"

I give a small chuckle and shake my head, even though she can't see that. "Of course not. They're dreadful. It's like raking my head through highly educational mud."

"Then...why do you read them?"

"A good question. I read them because I find them fascinating. To be able to gain the knowledge it took those who came before me entire lifetimes to gain, in just short hours? Amazing, no?" I can hear my voice picking up intonation and energy as I go, funnily enough. I've always been someone to get very invested in things that I like. "And, more specifically, I find science in general to be uniquely interesting."

She gives me a curious glance, but averts her eyes again almost immediately after. It's almost like what a kid would do, fittingly enough. "You do, hmm? You'd be right at home with Nepgear, then. Sometimes I think she's crazy, the way she talks about her lab experiments."

"Somehow I feel like you just casually insulted me."

"No," she says rather firmly, "I didn't. I was just saying that I think you'd be good friends with Nepgear."

_Sheesh, this is awkward, _I think to myself, a small yet coy grin forming on my face. _She's awfully defensive around people she doesn't know. It might be best to change the subject. _"So," I begin, trying to sound as casual and nonchalant as possible, "what are you reading?"

"Two fiction fantasies," she answers as curtly as ever. "One is about a dragonkin warrior who has to choose their allegiance between two warring kingdoms, and the other is about a mythical sword that gives its wielder visions of the future."

"Oh, is that so? Well, how do you like them? They seem interesting."

She sighs, as if my questions are causing her discomfort. "They're fine, really. A bit boring, but I'm still in the beginning. It'll get better."

I start to weigh my options in my head. This conversation isn't going anywhere. It might be for the best to just cut it here and let Blanc read in peace. However—and I'm only thinking about this in my shock of meeting a CPU for the first time—perhaps I should push it just a bit more? Doing so would give me more chances to play cushy with her and get on her good side, but it also gives me just as many chances to get on her bad side. Should I test my luck and take that risk, or should I just play it safe and not make things bad for myself?

"Right...well, I'll get to reading then," I announce, choosing the latter option and hoping for the best.

"'Kay."

I sigh and throw open the book, getting a satisfying _crack _from the binding. I skim over the table of contents and then flip to page 73–where the section on past research of immortality begins—and start to read, allowing my surroundings to become duller and for my imagination to run wild. I wasn't lying with what I said to Blanc. These works are horrendously boring to read; all they amount to is a glorified retelling of things that have already happened, complete with esoteric vocabulary and confusing writing at the best of times.

However, the subject matter is simply _fascinating. _Overcoming death itself using only my own knowledge and understanding of biology has been a dream of mine for a very long time, and I'm now ever closer to realizing it. Add onto that the fact that I'm no longer under the limitations my old world imposed on me, and I'm incredibly happy, to put it lightly. Because of this, I'm willing to read as many boring, thoughtless, mind-numbing, and exceedingly drab texts as I need to. I won't give up on this goal, not this time.

I'm currently reading about old theories about immortality aging back to the earliest documented scientists of Gamindustri. Some people had some very odd ideas, actually—one scientist thought that transfusing magic from an ancient being would let them achieve immortality, and another thought that eating a human heart would grant them eternal life. It seems that this section is mostly focusing on the spiritual era of science, so I can probably skip ahead a few pages...

"So...that book," Blanc begins, her voice noticeably quieter and more measured, "what's it about?"

I look up at her curiously. Wasn't she trying to read...? "It's about research into attaining immortality, past and present. Why? Would you like to read it?"

"No, not really," she says, shaking her head. She pauses a moment, fiddling with her sleeves and still looking away from me. "You actually want immortality?"

"Of course!" I respond a bit too passionately, my voice echoing throughout the room and eliciting a wince from the both of us. Quieter, I continue, "I do. Why? Are you suddenly interested in what I'm doing?"

Blanc simply rolls her eyes at this and shakes her head exasperatedly. "No, it's just that most people actually don't want immortality. But you say you do? Why? Don't you have family?"

"Ah, the classic argument. Well, if they want to be with me, then they'll take immortality as well. And if they don't, then...that's a price I'm willing to pay."

"Really? You're _really _okay with leaving your family and friends behind, if they don't want to take it?"

"It's very bold of you to assume I have friends."

She sighs angrily and balls up her fists, now looking straight at me. "Look, you know what I mean. Maybe you shouldn't have immortality, so other people don't have to deal with you forever."

I can't help but laugh at this, before I feel Blanc's icy glare worsening and I'm scared out of my wits. I take a few deep breaths to calm myself—no use losing my composure now, after all—then try to steer things back on track, "in all seriousness, I'm okay with it. It'd be a big price to pay, to be sure, but I'm willing to do it if it means I can finally do something with my life."

"You don't really look like you've done much throughout your life," Blanc agrees with a small nod of her head.

"Again with the not-so-subtle scathing remarks..." I mutter under my breath, looking away awkwardly.

"Did you say something?"

I fervently shake my head. "No, no! Not at all! Don't concern yourself with me, Lady White Heart!"

"Tch. Just call me Blanc. I can't stand it when people call me by my official title, just to suck up."

"What, you don't want to impose your absolute authority onto all the ants beneath you?"

She clenches her fists tighter and gives another exasperated sigh. "No, I don't. Though maybe I'll make you call me by my full official title, just to get back at you. Goddesses, you're annoying..."

I give a nervous chuckle at this. "Umm...your 'full' official title...?"

She takes a deep breath, and I just know that this is going to take a while. "Lady White Heart, Official Ambassador and Representative of Lowee and all Constituent Courts."

"...Wow. Who came up with that?"

"Not me," Blanc scoffs. "The first courts of Lowee really seemed to like needlessly gaudy titles. That's just one of the ridiculous names they made that have survived until today."

"Gotta love bureaucracy, huh?"

"...I know what you mean."

I give a dry chuckle. "Man, you really are hard to get talking, aren't you? I guess it is my fault, though, since—"

Her knuckles are starting to turn white from how hard she's squeezing them. "Goddesses, would you just _stop talking?!_" Blanc slams her fists down onto the table and bores a hole into my spirit with her icy glare. "I came here to read in peace, and here you are, just talking on and on!"

One of my weaknesses is that I sometimes don't know when to stop joking around and take things seriously. It's often been said about me that I "don't care about anything" or that I "don't take anything seriously", but the truth is that I do sometimes take everything much too seriously. Unfortunately, for some reason, my mind has decided to enter one of those moods where I just stop caring about everything, which leads me to offer an amazingly genius response: "Geez, Blanc, why are you being so loud? People are trying to read, you know?"

Blanc shoots up from her seat as an aura of pure violence flares around her. Her voice lowers as she growls out at me, "You got a death wish or somethin'?!"

"Of course I don't. Immortality, remember?"

"GAH! GET OUT!"

Luckily, I am not so stupid to miss this chance, as I grab my book and run out of the door as fast as I can. I can vaguely hear Blanc muttering some profanities about me before the Archive door closes with a mighty _slam_, making me all the more thankful that I escaped in time. I breathe a sigh of relief as I make my way to the elevator at the end of the hall, rubbing my neck sheepishly.

"That could've gone better..." I mutter, pushing the button for the bottom floor of the Basilicom and standing in silence. My back hits the cool wall behind me as my mind replays everything that went wrong in the conversation I just had. "Why'd I have to go and blow my chance like that...?"

The elevator opens at my destination a few short moments later, and I drearily walk out into the lobby of the Basilicom. The people around me are giving me some weird looks, but are apparently too busy to stop me for anything. A weak, dry grin appears on my face as I walk past them, taking a seat in one of the posh chairs lining the waiting area of the reception room. I'm pretty sure I'm classified as an honored guest, since my assumption is that Blanc dragged me here after my quest with the Chocopi. Hell if I'm going to pass up an opportunity to read on government property and inconvenience the bureaucrats.

I open the book to the section on modern research into immortality. The beginning is nothing special, merely serving as an introduction to the concept, but the following passages are what interest me most. Listed here are the most prominent theories about how to achieve unending life, and the experiments done to test them. Chief among them is the Magic Therapy Theory, which postulates that magic can be used to modify human cells to alter their replication and sustain them in the state they were when the therapy was taken. I bring a hand to my chin in thought—that probably wouldn't work on me, since I don't have any magic. Is _my _theory on immortality here, I wonder...?

Funnily enough, no, it isn't. That's somewhat strange; "my" theory was the most commonplace theory back in my old world. I guess science really is different here, though I guess that only makes sense. I guess I'll just have to find a way to test it. Wait, hold on—what's this? My eyes narrow and focus on the page, frantically trying to capture as much as possible. It details something about a place called Ecclesia, where scientific research is held away from the rest of Gamindustri. Nobody knows where it is, but it's—

"Sir," a voice from behind me calls out, causing me to jump in my seat and spin around. A Basilicom Guard has placed his hand firmly on my shoulder and is looking down at me with disdain. "I don't know how you got here but I need to ask you to leave."

Without responding, I promptly stuff "my" book into my bag and bolt out of the door.

000

Upon further deliberation, I have decided that frantically running out of the Basilicom was a poor choice. An even poorer choice was to run in a straight line down the road for nearly half a minute before finally stopping to catch my breath. However—and I do not say this lightly, to be clear—worst among them was stealing a book from the Basilicom and making away with it. Luckily, the guard didn't seem to pay much attention to it, but I don't think Blanc is going to be too thrilled about seeing me again any time soon. Actually, I don't think stealing the book was the deciding factor in that, but it definitely didn't help.

I find a bulletin board map on the sidewalk and start to investigate it. It seems that there's several Guild outposts scattered throughout the nation of Lowee—that makes sense. There's one a few blocks over that I estimate to be about a fifteen minute walk from here, so I can at least occupy my mind as I go. I put on my headphones and start to listen to "Dimension Tripper" by 5pb., a newfound favorite of mine after being deprived of my classical music (apparently, despite the numerous references to Earth, Gamindustri doesn't have _any _of its music). I quietly hum along to the tune, though I don't actually know any of the words and it's more of an off-key mumble than a hum. I accepted my tone deafness long ago.

The walk to the nearby Guild outpost isn't long, but it sure is annoying. Once there, I check in to a computer and accept all of the quests that are within my level range. Kill quests, fetch quests, infiltration quests—I take them all, even though I have no intention of doing some of them. The first one in my log is a quest asking me to grab ten Mega-Mofo Mushrooms for some "Ordinary Magician", and they apparently only grow on the snow-capped Lugee Hills in the northeastern area of Lowee. Because of course they do; why would they ever grow in the Jublee Snowfields or some other nearby area?

I walk out of the Guild and towards my target. Fortunately, the Lugee Hills are basically flush with Lowee's northeastern border, so the walk isn't going to be too long, but it's still a pain in the ass. I pull out my MP3 player and thumb through my music list absentmindedly, as I'm unsure of what to listen to. Artists from Lastation put out surprisingly good jazz music, though that would contrast the mood...and Loweean music is too somber for the occasion...heh, never thought _I'd _be the one saying that...

My eyes dart around me as I walk through the appallingly empty street heading away from the capital. Most of the people here seem to be on official business, since they're all wearing suits and dresses (I pity the fool who wears a long dress in the snow), but some appear to be simply heading to a nearby store for a hot drink. Others still are playing in the snow and making snowmen or snow angels. I smile and slow my pace a bit, wanting to indulge myself in the scene. In my home world, I didn't get to see people just be themselves very much. Everyone was hidden underneath their own masks. Being able to see the truth behind people is something I'm coming to enjoy about Gamindustri.

"What a lovely little place..." I mutter to myself, watching a pair of children frolic about and laugh. I had already made up my mind that, given the chance, I would never return to my home world. But now, after seeing all this? I'm even happier to stay.

I sigh to myself and speed up again, deciding to focus my mind on the quest. I'm at the edge of Lowee now and can actually begin to see the Lugee Hills; it's an expansive range of towering hills that recede into the shore at the ocean and are capped with snow at the top, making them look almost like mushrooms themselves. Preceding them is a vast field of snowy plains with a few dead trees scattered about, though it seems like nothing has grown here for quite a long time.

My slippers trudge through the snow towards my target and I immediately notice that my short-clad legs are basically halfway submerged in the snow, putting me at risk of frostbite. I'll need to sort this out later if I plan on taking many more quests. Luckily, the snow seems thin on the actual ascent up the hill, so that part shouldn't be too tough. I should probably pick out a pair of jeans soon...

I shake my head to clear it of that horrid thought. I never much liked jeans. They feel way too restrictive and uncomfortable to me, which leads to me wearing shorts in basically all temperatures. Of course, I was never at legitimate risk for losing a limb to the cold before, but the game has changed and I may need to consider proper winter gear. Snow pants are a bit excessive, though they could add to the "homeless bum" look I've got going for me...

Before I know it, I've arrived at the foot of the first hill. I quickly change my music to The One Uppers' _Snowy Night, Crackling Fire _and begin my ascent up the hillside. It's a low incline trail, which is wonderful on my ailing knees. The people I knew used to joke that I was like an old man trapped in a teenager's body, and though I would always argue, I would still need to borrow my mother's hiking sticks on tough walks and would complain about back and neck pain non-stop.

A sigh escapes my lips and blows a puffy cloud of vapor in front of my face. No use thinking about that now. The peak of the hill is within sight, after all, and in all likelihood, that's only where the troubles begin. The rest of the climb is nice and easy with only a couple of near-falls to my death, and when I get to the top, I'm faced with a very lucky sight—there are many more than ten Mega-Mofo Mushrooms gathered here. Unfortunately, they're...disgusting.

Each mushroom appears to be a sort of cluster of several small fungi growing around a medium-sized rock. The mushroom itself is red with several white spots on it, and the rock is tannish, leading one to question the nomenclature of this thing. As I pick one up, I find that it's surprisingly light, but it's rather repulsive to the touch—the mushrooms are soft, leathery, and smooth to the touch and leave moisture on my gloves, despite the fact that there is no liquid on them. I reluctantly toss it into my bag, being sure to separate it from the pouch with the book.

"Eugh..." I continue to grumble as I pick up the other nine mushrooms, wiping my gloves on the snow after touching each one. Once I have my payload, I quickly descend the hill, though not without considering the execution of a slick slide down the side—my logical side really helped on that one.

I sigh and walk back to Lowee, just in time for my music to change to an upbeat tune by 5pb. I can't stop to look at what's playing now, though, since a Fenrir bounds towards me from my left and I'm barely able to jump backwards and avoid getting snapped in two. It rears its ugly head at me and bares its fangs, dripping saliva onto the snow beneath it. Even hunched over, it towers over me, at an estimated height of three meters, ground-to-shoulder.

I draw the Switcheroos and open fire at it, my wrists jerking upward from the recoil. The Fenrir growls in irritation and bounds at me, swinging both of its claws downward to try and pin me. In response, I spin to the side, dodging the attack and slicing at the wolf's front right leg with the blades of my guns. I take the left gun and shoot at its leg while preparing another slash with the right gunknife, but the Fenrir swings its leg and forces me to back off. Though it stumbles a bit, it's able to quickly recover and lunge towards me with a snap of its jaws, which I sidestep. Time seems to slow down for me as I raise both of my gunknives high above my head, hold them for a moment, and then drop their blades into the beast's right eye, eliciting a horrible pained roar from the Fenrir.

"Gah...DIE ALREADY!" I let out an inhuman growl as I retract my right gunknife and slash and stab at the Fenrir's head several times—once at its soft nose, once at its forehead, and once into the bottom of its opened mouth. I yank both of my guns out and take a step back, opening fire into the downed beast's head for a good few seconds before my guns automatically eject their magazines and reload themselves. The Fenrir disperses into data shortly after and leaves behind Credits and a Life Fragment.

I place the Credits into my bag before looking down at my blood-soaked hands. A familiar feeling of power and adrenaline is washing over me...no, no! Not this again! It was life or death! I _had _to kill that Fenrir! There was no other way! Why am I feeling so bad about it, anyway? It was an animal, and it was trying to kill me, so I protected myself!

My breathing begins to return to normal as I successfully rationalize my feelings and stow my guns in my pockets. It still doesn't feel right to kill these monsters—in fact, it feels rather awful—but I think I can get used to it. I'll need to, if I want to survive in this world. It's always been a dog-eat-dog world; now, I just need to kill to survive. It's just a small step up...isn't it?

I grumble something incomprehensible under my breath as my MP3 player autoplays _Inner Feelings _by OZGA and I make my way back to Lowee. It's probably best for my mental health if I just forget about everything that happened in the past hour or so. When I get back home, I'll treat myself to a nice, cool container of yogurt, and—wait. I pat down my pockets and then throw my bag open in a panic. The book's there, as are the mushrooms, but...

"I'M BROKE!" I glare down at the Switcheroos in my pocket and throw my bag back onto my back, gripping my hair tightly. "Gah, why did I ever think this was a good idea?!"

I guess the yogurt will have to wait.

000

**Normally I don't leave ANs at the end of chapters (and I don't plan to unless I need to make an announcement like this), but there's something I need to say here. On Sunday my time, I will be flying a plane to America for almost all of the day, not to mention the complications that come afterward. Therefore, I will probably not be able to upload the next chapter in a timely manner. Aren't plane flights just so much _fun?_**

**Petty complaining aside, I want to issue a _massive _thank-you for getting this story to 50 follows! I'd like to do some sort of special, but I'm not sure what would be best. I guess it's just another thing to think about on the flight, isn't it (seriously, it's like 14 hours—someone please help)? If there's anything specific you'd like, please leave it in a review on _this _chapter. But nobody reads these, do they? Ah, well...I'll see later.**

**This is Hubble7, taking off for now.**


	5. Chapter 5: Chasing Legends

**AN: I'm going to level with you. I actually had no idea what I was supposed to do with this chapter. It went through over ten unfinished and unused drafts because they all shared the same flaw—I was trying to progress things far too quickly. I was introducing too many major plot points immediately after I _already did that _last chapter, and in some drafts, I even went back on previous plot points. I eventually settled on this current draft because it felt the best to me, and set a good pace for future events.**

**Also, this story's following is kinda crazy to me. 36 favorites and 59 follows? That's _absurd. _I'll definitely do something special to thank you guys in the near future—I'm leaning towards a special chapter that features Graham just doing Graham things, though I'm perfectly willing to change this if you guys want something else. Maybe the special can be this story getting good? Anywho, on to the reviews.**

Lord of Tee: I thought I told you that there was no previous version of Chapter 4. Do I need to introduce a character called Tee and kill them off immediately just to hammer this in? ;)

flitterflux: I know you didn't mean anything by it, but please don't ever call me a neckbeard. Graham's going to get a lot more depth going forward (I hope, at least), and that'll hopefully make him to be a much more believable, immersive character. Right now he's just doing whatever it takes to get what he wants, which you'll see in this chapter.

Porpol: I will be doing an outfit change on Graham soon, and not just to conform to what you want; there's a reason for this that you'll see in this chapter. Also, same to you as with Lord Tee. There _was _no "previous version" of Chapter 4, remember? Or do you want Porpol to be next on the chopping block?

As for the random fights, I think I explained it to you over Discord. If not, it was because I wanted to show Graham begrudgingly accepting the need to kill as part of his career. But, in keeping with a common theme in this story, I did it way too quickly and it seemed jarring, as you saw. There's another plot point that will come of this that I intend to do nice and slowly.

Lastly, thank you for all the help with this story. I've made a ton of mistakes with this story and it's been a frustrating process, but it's good to know that you're willing to help if I get caught in a rut. I don't know if you will, but if you ever need my assistance, I'm always willing to help.

Blaze2121: Unfortunately, I have no intention of making Graham into a CPU. He'll definitely get more powerful as the story goes on, but it won't be quite so drastic. I have no plans of making him get anywhere close to god/goddess levels of power; he'll instead use other tools to help him succeed. To try and explain more clearly; this is an SI story, and I'm not a very strong person. I end up using my mind to try and work my way through tough situations, which is something that I'd like to mirror here.

**That's it for reviews. I plan to have the story get more interesting from here on out, in both conflict and characters. Graham's going to start having positive human interaction (_gasp_), and things will actually start happening (_no way!_). It took a little while but the story's finally starting, boys.**

**With that out of the way, let's begin!**

000

Gamindustri has been rather cruel to me for a long time now. As soon as I got here, I had to get two jobs that payed poorly and had brutal hours that didn't allow for food or sleep at all, apart from my federal-mandated lunch break. After two months of that, I finally got my weapon and joined the Guild, and I thought everything would work out after that. But lo and behold, I almost got done in by a flock of Chocopi and had to get dragged by Blanc to her Basilicom. Once _there_, though, I couldn't just accept my chance and make friends with the literal goddess of Lowee. Oh, no. That'd be too _simple._ Instead, I got on her bad side and basically got forced out, and then took a quest to go to the middle of nowhere to grab ten ridiculous mushrooms for some equally ridiculous client. I then discovered that I've got exactly 0 Credits, and that it's actually pretty cold in Lowee. Who'd have guessed?

What am I even doing here? What do I want, really? Well, I'd like to not be poor, like I just discovered I am. I'd like to meet the goddesses and their little motley crew. As I mentioned to Blanc, I'd like to achieve immortality. In that time, I also read about Ecclesia—I'd like to go there and see what the deal is; if what the book said is true and Ecclesia is some sort of scientific utopia, then I can knock out those last two in one go. The problems, though, are manifold. I am, of course, dirt poor again. That is the biggest problem. But next and second most pressing is the fact that Ecclesia is very obscure and people probably won't know about it. How am I supposed to gather information about a place that the populace is convinced doesn't even exist?

I take a long step towards Lowee on my way back from the fetch quest. First, I should prioritize getting my reward. I'd then like to figure out more about Ecclesia in any way I can, but that's a long term project. I'll probably need to go to the other three nations, too, which sounds exciting but will probably just be a pain in the ass. Are there international transports in Gamindustri? In the games, you kinda just...took really big steps and crossed the entire continent in mere moments. Am I going to have to walk across all of the world, just to find books?

I shake the thought from my mind as I walk into the capital city of Lowee and start heading towards the Guild. I'll need to redeem the quest and then try to sort out where I'm supposed to go next—a library will probably be the best starting point. Unfortunately, the Archive is closed off to me now, but I'll need to scour through every single library in Lowee and find every single text that mentions Ecclesia in any form or fashion. ...Ah, who am I kidding? I'm not going to do that at all. I'm probably just going to find a single book and go from there.

As I walk in, I see that the Guild is surprisingly empty on the inside, with only small groups of two or three people standing around and waiting for something. They look at me oddly but then return to their business, mumbling something amongst themselves. I smile wryly and walk over to the computers, accessing one and redeeming my quest for a tidy reward of 800 Credits. It's not much, but it'll be enough to buy me some lunch or something as I set out on my info-gathering quest. From there, I can do miscellaneous quests as I keep up my search to make myself some more money. I must say, though it's basically the same plan that I've been using for the past few months, it seems actually decent now.

I throw my hood on as I walk back out, unfolding my map and looking for a public library. Finding one after a moment's search, I stuff the map gracelessly into my jacket pocket, sighing with content as a cold breeze passes over my body. Walking in the capital city is much easier than in 64 Town, since the snow is shoveled much thinner and the sidewalks are noticeably smoother. It almost feels like home to me, as odd a concept as that is. I don't think I'll ever buy a house, but if I do, it'll be here.

The library near me is rather small, having a single story at about thirty square meters. On the inside, there are several bookshelves towards the opposite side of the building, and a few long tables to my left. A single computer catalog sits on a podium against the farthest left bookshelf, and next to it lies several book hold forms and a black ballpoint pen. I walk up to it and click the option to search by keyword, then type in "Ecclesia", and unsurprisingly, there are no results. "Immortality" doesn't get anything either, save for some folktales and myths from a bygone era. Hmm...how about something else I'd like to try? "Piston Engineering" gets a bunch of results, ranging from basic introductory-level books to highly advanced research texts.

"Ah, there's the stuff..." I mutter, taking a hold form and writing the numbers of the books on the back of it. I walk through the shelves, grabbing the books that I had written down and briefly scanning their covers—"Introduction to the Four-Stroke and Two-Stroke Piston Engine", "Beginner's Guide to Motor Engines", and "Mechanical Power—On the Mechanics and Functions of Piston Engines". I smile and look around, making sure nobody's watching me. After all, what I'm about to do is...well, it's both morally dubious and legally questionable.

I quickly stuff the books into my bag, wincing at their weight; I really need a new, more robust backpack. Taking another look around, I speedwalk to the bathrooms and close the door behind me. I then spot a window on the far side of the room, though it's high-up and a bit small. With a grumble, I walk over and pull myself up, then gently push open the window. It's a tight fit, but I'm able to squeeze myself through the open window and plummet into the snow below, stolen books in tow.

"Pah! Pah! Eugh...why does this snow taste so bad?!" I get to my feet and forcefully spit out all the snow that entered my mouth. People must've walked through here a lot and gotten their footprints on the snow. After taking a moment to recuperate, I take the books out of my bag and hold the right Switcheroo in the other, carefully positioning the blade to be in line with the library sticker. After a bit of hesitation, I drag the blade down and slice the sticker off, effectively removing all visible evidence that the book isn't mine. I then repeat the process with the other books and stuff them back into my bag.

I look up and orient myself. I'm in some sort of long alleyway between the side of the library and another building. Both sides open up to the street, and luckily, nobody's seen me quite yet. I bury the library stickers under the snow and walk out to the left side of the alley, walking in a random direction with gusto. I honestly don't care where I end up right now, so long as it isn't here. I should probably get going soon, but that can come after I get my new equipment sorted—800 Credits will be enough for a new bag, if nothing else.

A camping store comes into view soon enough, and I quickly duck in. A man tries to greet me, but before he can say anything, I grab a nicely sized camping bag and place it on the counter.

"I don't have any time," I half-explain, pulling out my Credits. "How much for this bag and for you to not say anything about me to anybody else?"

He stares at me in confusion, but manages to stammer out, "...200 Credits. What're you..."

"Take it." I slam the money down and walk out, ignoring his look of complete and utter bewilderment. I cut the tag off of the backpack and sit down in the snow, transferring my stuff from the old bag to the new one with absolute celerity. I then toss the old bag into the nearest trash can and begin to think to myself, a frown crossing my face.

The next step for me is to go to some other library to find more info about Ecclesia, as well as my secondary goal of...highly dangerous and probably illegal bodily modification. But where should I go? The general theme that I've discovered (admittedly, with only about a quarter of a day of looking) is that very few people know Ecclesia exists, and there are even fewer publications on it. Hell, I only found out about it because it was included in a completely separate book. My best resource really would've been the Lowee Archive, but alas, that is now unusable.

I sigh wearily and keep walking in a random direction. "Damnit..." My little curse earns me looks of confusion from onlookers, but as usual, I ignore them and put on my headphones, blaring some random pop music that I can't name. "Why'd I have to go and do that...?" I run a hand down my face and look around for any libraries or bookstores near me. A few small establishments catch my eye, but I pass them by without a thought; I'm looking for big-name establishments, since those have the best chances of holding scientific publications that will interest me.

I start to tune out the rest of the world as I keep trying to formulate a plan from the utter mess I'm in. My typical approach to plan-making (on the rare occasions I do it) is to first analyze what my resources are. I have free and unhindered access to my mind, my money, and the various libraries around Lowee. It just so happens that all of those resources are worthless, in short supply, and generally unhelpful, respectively. The next step is analyzing my end goal, and at least that's easy; I want to both go to Ecclesia and achieve immortality through bodily modification. That's cool, and it's nice to have a goal, but how do I get there?

My question is partly answered as I look up and see a veritably massive building labeled "Lowee Collegiate Library for the Academic and Scholarly Societies". All around me are people that look like college students (big surprise there) or fully-fledged businessmen, though there are some laymen around that seem to just be looking for a good read. I shrug and walk in, not looking to pass up an opportunity. The inside of the building is almost as large as the Lowee Archive and is organized in a similar circular shape, with a stairwell leading to a second floor to make accessing the enormously tall bookshelves easier. I look around in awe, my jaw agape. Before I can fully enter, though, I'm stopped by a young woman manning a desk near the door.

"Sir, before you can enter, you must pay the required entrance fee. It's to help maintain the library and keep the books in good condition." She seems utterly disinterested, as if she's given this speech several times and is appropriately condescending to me. "I'm sure you understand."

"...Yes, of course. How much is it?"

"60 Credits per person."

I sigh through my nose and ruffle through my pockets, producing the required sum and putting it on the table. "Thanks for having me," I say rather passive-aggressively as I walk into the library. Signs on the ends of the bookshelves indicate what genre is held where, and an indication of how many books are in that genre. The science and research section is denoted by a plaque on the ground in front of three shelves, easily constituting the largest section of them all. I walk in with glee and begin to look through the selection.

Various publications by esteemed scientists surround me on all sides. Some are on physics, some are on chemistry, and others are even on Share energy (the study of which is apparently called "Diviology", for all three people who cared), but almost all have a small insignia on the bottom of their spine reading "Approved by the Lowee Collegiate Academic and Scientific Society". I take out one entitled "On the Nature and Development of the Human Mind Under External and Internal Stresses" and analyze its covers. It has no library sticker or otherwise any indication that it's public property, which makes a smile come onto my face. My job just got a lot easier.

I put the book back in its spot and keep walking, stopping only when I see a book smaller than the rest and lacking the certification insignia. "Chasing Legends", it's titled, and I open it to the inside cover. My eyes shoot wide open as I behold the full title: "Chasing Legends: The Investigations and Frustrations of Ecclesia". I throw it open haphazardly and begin to read the opening notes.

000

"Ecclesia is an entity that has remained shrouded in mystery for as long as Gamindustri has known about it. It was formed centuries ago when a team of scientists left Planeptune to independently further their research, but has since maintained little to no contact with Gamindustri. Calculations reveal that the Share energy these scientists should have been lending to Planeptune disappeared when they left, meaning that they have either become faithless or they have moved so far away from the nation that their Share Energy cannot reach the Basilicom, as in Musashi's Theorem.

Several theories about Ecclesia exist. Some theorize that Ecclesia is the name that the group of scientists gave themselves, while others believe that it is actually the name of a scientific research facility constructed for the scientists to take refuge in. Such information has long since been shrouded in mystery, and thus these theories are impossible to corroborate. However, it is reasonable to assume that Ecclesian technology is incredibly advanced, if it is indeed a place—due to the distance it would have to maintain from Gamindustri (as aforementioned), its scientists must have mastered teleportation technology or some other super-fast transportation method.

Ecclesia has remained a topic of intrigue among scientific societies since the moment of its inception, gaining an almost cult-like status in its reverence. Several myths and poems have been written about it, and some movies have even been produced, with the directors using their personal theories about Ecclesia to drive the plot. It should come as no surprise, then, that most information regarding Ecclesia is highly untrustworthy, as much of it has been diluted and perverted over time. This text exists solely to attempt to inform the reader about what is known about Ecclesia, using only the objective information known to the most elite teams of Gamindustri researchers. Though some theories will be placed in this book to help guide the reader along lines of inquiry, they will be explicitly labeled as such to avoid potential confusion.

Science is a pursuit of the unknown through objective and logical reasoning. The conclusions reached through scientific inquiry are often completely nonsensical and can only be understood through many months of further research, and many groundbreaking modern theorems were only ever experimented on due to the crazed ideas of a sleep-deprived young man or woman. It is therefore unreasonable to dismiss Ecclesia a child's myth or bedtime story, or to allow it to fall into oblivion as it is so near to doing. To allow scientific research to flourish, the question of Ecclesia's nature—or even its very existence—should remain open and accepted by society at large.

After all, science originated as mankind's desire to chase legends and to understand the seemingly mystical universe around us. Should that tradition not continue, even if it entails the following of the most obscure tale to ever exist?"

000

I grin and close the book, looking around to see if anybody is watching me. When I confirm that nobody is, I quickly open my backpack and slide it in, zipping it back up and putting it back on as fast as I can. Since there's no sticker, there's no need for me to vandalize anything about it, though it is for the best if I get out of here as soon as I can. I cast glances to my left and right once more before I make my way towards the entrance of the library, my steps hurried and long. With a small nod to the librarian and a hurried half-jump out the door I escape, ill-gotten goods in tow. I head back the way I came and make a few extra turns on the way, paranoid that somebody had pursued me out of the library. Once I'm positive that anyone who was following me had either lost me or given up, I start to run through a bunch of things in my mind.

The security on that library will probably be pretty tight, meaning that they'll discover that a book is missing very quickly. Since someone doubtlessly saw me enter the science section, they'll probably immediately suspect that it was me and report my appearance to the police immediately. I doubt many other people are wearing shorts, socks, and slippers, so that'll pretty much spell instant doom for me. However, if I flee the nation, it'll throw them for a loop for a bit, in which time they'll either give up or extend the bounty to other nations. That'll give me enough time to get an outfit change and effectively disguise myself, allowing me to remain undetected until the issue lays over.

I'm not sure if this plan will work, but if it does, it's concerning how quickly my criminal genius is forming.

This decided things quickly, then. I have some time before the stolen book is noticed, so I can stay a little while longer in Lowee. I'll use that to get myself some food and water for the road, then start to huff it for Planeptune as soon as possible. If I move quickly, I estimate that I can make it there in a week's time, assuming no other difficulties arise. I'll then probably have a few days to get my disguise sorted; I think I'll go for baggy sweatpants, combat boots, a black t-shirt, and a hoodie. I'll ditch the gloves, too. I may as well stick with the style that I'm familiar with, right?

Another thought occurs to me: if I get a bicycle, I can probably cut my travel time significantly and make things easier for myself upon arrival. Unfortunately, I'm a bit short on money right now, but that hasn't stopped me before. I'll just...borrow...somebody else's bike, then promptly disappear. I might leave a Credit or two to ease the pain of the loss, too. I'm such a generous soul, aren't I?

I go as quickly as I can to a nearby convenience store, my mind still racing. Some towns have tour bikes that you can spend Credits to release from a locking mechanism and ride at your leisure. Of course, it's probably rigged with some sort of alarm system, but if I just handily disable that, then I'm free to take an obscure route out of Lowee and make my way to Planeptune. I'll need to do this entirely undetected, of course, which should be pretty easy if I go out through 64 Town's gate at night; if I recall, there weren't any guards there when I arrived.

Ooh, a pack of Blanc manju. May as well indulge myself...

I leave 150 Credits for myself after getting some food and water, in case the bike is extremely expensive. I also got a roll of duct tape, because that's always useful (and I may need to tape up any logos on the bike to help prevent detection.) I get my stuff scanned and leave the store with nary a word, quickly stuffing the items in my bag and making my way to 64 Town. Who knew being a criminal could be so...invigorating?

I'm going to go to hell for this, aren't I?

000

Things are rather quiet in 64 Town. Of course, that's only because I waited several hours for night to fall before I did so much as move, but I can still appreciate a silence. Also, pro tip: if you ever need to loiter in a town or city for an extended period of time, make sure you move around at randomized intervals every so often. It makes you look _really _suspicious if you're just sitting on a bench for half an hour—and yes, I learned that the hard way. I swear, town security is paid to just be angry all the time...

Nevertheless, I'm here, and I'm ready to put my plan into action. I located a rack of tour bikes close to the gate, and there are four left. If my assumption is correct, then there's a mechanical system attached to the handlebar that trips an alarm if it leaves a certain radius outside of the city. If I attempt to destroy it, it'll probably still trip the alarm, so I'll need to either be extremely precise in my wire-cutting or be able to bike _incredibly _quickly.

I get up off of a bench and walk over to the bike rack, slotting in the required 30 Credits (a surprisingly tame price, might I add) and unhooking the bike. I walk it over to the town gate and brandish my tape roll, taping over the large white letters on the body that read "LTA: Lowee Tourist Agency". Putting away the roll with gusto, my eyes are drawn to the machine on the handlebar that's beeping with a red LED. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be wired to anything, but there does appear to be a mechanism attached to the cord keeping it on the bike. Trying to cut the cord will trip the mechanism and sound an alarm, in all likelihood.

I draw the right Switcheroo and gently lift the machine to expose more of the cord. I sigh through my teeth as I look at the tiny little box of dream-crushing—it doesn't look like there's a way to deactivate this thing. A completely humorless grin crosses my face as a realization dawns on me: I'm going to have to either return this bike and walk all the way to Planeptune, or I'm going to have to avoid the Loweean police for the rest of my life.

Ah hell, it wouldn't kill to inconvenience Blanc a bit more.

I forcefully tear the machine off of the bike, causing a deafeningly loud alarm to start playing. I then stab it through with the Switcheroo, reducing it to a pile of scrap and silencing it. I move a little ways away from the town gate and bury the remains of the machine under the snow, then pick up the bike and hold it overhead as I book it away from Lowee. I don't want the print of the bike's wheels to get left in the snow and let the police catch up to me with ease, after all. It'll be difficult to identify me based off of a slipper-print, too, since my slippers are so full of gunk that the underside is almost completely flat.

After what feels like hours of going on like this, I drop the bike to the ground, hop on, and start pedaling as fast my miserable little legs will take me. My muscles are screaming at me to stop, but I manage to quash the desire to pull over and rest; every moment I spend not moving is a moment that the police can catch up to me. I can hardly see a thing and it feels like I'll collapse at any moment, but I've long since learned to become immune to the higher forces of reason and logic.

If there's one thing I'm good at, it's ruining things for myself in spectacular fashion, and I get the sense that I'm going to be doing a lot of that in the near future.


End file.
